A top European Union lawmaker, Reinhard Butikofer, on Tuesday said that China is helping the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Butikofer, who is the head of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with China, said the Asian giants have “given political support to the Russian aggression against Ukraine.”
“The way in which China handles this conflict will have bearing on the future overall of the EU/China relationship,” said Reinhard Butikofer.
Speaking to journalists ahead of a high-level summit between the EU and China on Friday, Butikofer said, “The veil is threadbare and it fools no one.”
He added that he hoped that European leaders would “push hard to make China understand that Europe expects them to refrain from further supporting Russia.”
“I would say that we have to convincingly tell the Chinese side that for us, this is not just a sideshow, this is not just an unnecessary conflict that will be forgotten tomorrow,” the German politician said.
“This is a very fundamental conflict because it breaches the principles on which the European security and stability order has been built over the decades.”
When asked if he thought China was helping Russia evade sanctions, he said, “China’s commercial banks have refrained from obviously breaching the sanctions against Russia.
“I don’t think it’s possible to say yet how much China has been helping Russia to overcome the sanctions,” he concluded.
